The
Legend of Père Noel
Papa
Noel is the New Orleans Santa Claus, and,
like New Orleans, a fog of mystery and
myth surrounds him. He doesn't own a
sleigh (it would sink in the bayou) and he
has no need of reindeer (living on Cajun
food, they'd be to full to fly). Instead
he moves about in a pirogue, a narrow,
flat-bottomed boat that can penetrate the
deepest swamp. Some say he has 8 fat
alligators and a red-nosed loup garou* to
pull his pirogue. Others say no, the
alligators are just close friends, the
loup garou is a distant cousin, and it's
Papa Noel who has the red nose.
Sometimes,
however, even Papa Noel gets lost in the
fog. And the local residents -- the
fog-dwellers, the moon-lovers, the
dreamy-dreamers, the gumbo-eaters -- they
all want to make sure that Papa Noel can
find his way to their homes. So they build
enormous bonfires along the levee and
light them on Christmas Eve, so he can see
where he's going. Papa Noel will tell you
all about it if you ask him, but you'll
have to join him as he leads the
second-liners in the daily Riverwalk Brass
Band Parades.
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